japan running news

Yuka Ando age: 25 sponsor: Wacoal graduated from: Toyokawa H.S. best time inside MGC window: 2:26:47, 13th, 2019 London Marathon PB: 2:21:36, 2nd, 2017 Nagoya Women’s Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 15:32.67 (2015) 10000 m: 31:58.71 (2016) half marathon: 1:09:47 (2019) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019) 13th, 2019 London Marathon, 2:26:47 3rd, 2018 Osaka International Women’s Marathon, 2:27:37 17th, 2017 London World Championships Marathon, 2:31:31 other major results: 2nd, 2019 Hakodate Half Marathon, 1:09:47 – PB 1st, 2019 Niigata Half Marathon, 1:10:34 3rd, 2017 Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon, 1:12:12 10th, 2016 World Half Marathon Championships, 1:10:36 Another star runner from Toyokawa H.S. , after graduating Ando bounced around through a series of corporate teams before landing at Suzuki Hamamatsu AC . There she found a coach who encouraged her to run the way that felt natural to her, with her arms almost straight down at her sides. The ...

On Apr. 11 the Noritz women's corporate team announced that former Suzuki Hamamatsu AC coach Masayuki Satouchi has been appointed its new head coach effective immediately. During his time at Suzuki, Satouchi developed two of Japan's top marathon women, Yuka Ando , 25, all-time Japanese #4 at 2:11:36 and currently running for the Wacoal team, and London World Championships team member Mao Kiyota , 25, 2:23:47. After that he left his coaching position, but his ability as a women's coach remained highly regarded. The Noritz team currently features three-time World Championships team member Mari Ozaki , 43, and 2020 Olympic trials qualifier Madoka Nakano , 27, on its roster. Previous head coach Yoshihiko Morioka retired at the end of January. source article: https://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/201904110000442.html translated by Brett Larner

2012 London Olympian Arata Fujiwara , 37, announced his retirement from competition on April 1. Effective the same day he will join the Suzuki Hamamatsu AC coaching staff. Translator's note: The most wildly unpredictable of Japan's elite marathoners, Fujiwara's achievements included a 2:07:48 PB that at the time ranked him all-time Japanese #7, a 2:09:34 course record at the 2010 Ottawa Marathon that made him the first Japanese man in 23 years to win a marathon outside Japan sub-2:10, three 2nd-place finishes at the Tokyo Marathon, becoming only the fifth Japanese man to score five career sub-2:10s, and representing Japan at the 2009 Berlin World Championships and 2012 London Olympics. His 2010 decision to quit the corporate league system and get individual sponsorship led the way for others including future national record holder Suguru Osako and Hakone Ekiden star Daichi Kamino to do the same.  source article: https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20190401-00000146...

On Feb. 1 the Wacoal women's corporate team announced that 2017 London World Championships team member Yuka Ando , 24, has joined its organization. Ando previously ran for the Suzuki Hamamatsu AC team. Known for her unique "ninja running" style with minimal upper body motion and arms held almost straight down at her sides, Ando ran 2:21:36 at the 2017 Nagoya Women's Marathon to become the fourth-fastest Japanese woman ever and break the debut marathon national record. She placed only an unremarkable 17th at the World Championships later that year, but with a 2:27:37 at the 2018 Osaka International Women's Marathon she qualified for September's MGC Race, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics marathon trials event. The Suzuki Hamamatsu AC team has undergone repeated coaching staff changes in recent years. In her new environment alongside half marathon national record holder Kayoko Fukushi Ando will now be able to target the Tokyo Olympics. source article: https://...

Her form has been dubbed "ninja running." Both arms held straight down with almost no movement. That idiosyncratic style carried Yuka Ando , 23, to the fastest-ever marathon debut by a Japanese woman, 2:21:36, at March's Nagoya Women's Marathon to land at #4 on the all-time Japanese lists. All at once Ando found herself catapulted to the top level of women's marathoning, a candidate for Japan's next great marathoner. When she was younger Ando ran moving her arms like other runners, but she had a bad habit of moving robotically, her upper body and lower body not working in sync. The turning point came in 2014 when she joined Suzuki Hamamatsu AC . Working there with coach Masayuki Satouchi to eliminate the faults in her form, the pair arrived at the ninja running style that let her run relaxed. "Other people keep asking me, "Isn't it hard to run like that?" but for me it's comfortable," she said. The efficient form helped her mai...

http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/column/20170314-OHT1T50078.html an editorial by Yuji Hosono translated by Brett Larner After running 2:21:36 for 2nd at the Mar. 12 Nagoya Women's Marathon to become the all-time 4th-fastest Japanese woman, the name of 22-year-old Cinderella girl Yuka Ando (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) is now synonymous with the slightly incongruous term "ninja running."  Her lower arms hanging loosely, barely moving, gaining forward propulsion through the strength of her legs, a unique form on display throughout her duel with Rio Olympics silver medalist Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain).  It just may be enough to bring the Olympic women's marathon gold medal back to Japan for the first time since Mizuki Noguchi in Athens in 2004. Ando's ninja running first caught my eye about a year ago at the May, 2016 Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon.  I had the impression that it seemed to be between Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal), who was expected to medal in the Rio Olympics...

http://www.at-s.com/sports/detail/1174213755.html translated by Brett Larner One of Japan's top 3000 m steeplechase runners, Tsuyoshi Takeda (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) announced his retirement following his run at the Shizuoka Prefecture Track and Field Championships.  In addition to long-lasting pain in the bottom of his right foot, Takeda, just 28, has recently had problems with the meniscus in his right knee that have meant he could not run as planned this season.  Before last month's National Championships he said, "If I don't produce results then that's it," and after finishing 9th he stuck to that decision. For his final race he chose the Prefectural Championships, saying, "I want my family to see me run."  With his wife Aiko and sons Hayato, 2, and Futoshi, 6 months, watching, Takeda took 2nd, running an active race that saw him do much of the leading work up front.  Takeda will remain a Suzuki employee for the time being but hopes to become...

by Brett Larner In what was really and truly probably the last noteworthy ekiden of the season, course records fell Feb. 17 in two of the three divisions at the 37th Chunichi Hamanako Isshu Ekiden at Lake Hamana in Shizuoka.  Despite the absence of aces Martin Mathathi  and Yusei Nakao , the Suzuki Hamamatsu AC  team had no trouble winning the 53.5 km men's race, clocking 2:42:49 to runner-up Teikyo University 's 2:44:15.  Suzuki men took three of the five stages, with 2010-11 steeplechase national champion Tsuyoshi Takeda setting a course record of 29:12 for the 9.6 km Fourth Stage. In the six-stage, 42.0 km high school boys' race, 2012 National High School Ekiden runner-up Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.  ran 2:07:38 to set a new overall course record thanks to four of its runners scoring stage bests.  Fourth man Yuki Hirota , running the same 9.6 km course as Takeda in the men's race, set a new high school division record of 28:44, almost 30 seconds better th...

http://kyushu.yomiuri.co.jp/news-spe/20090507-606401/news/20121212-OYS1T00296.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner If you ask Taiga Ito  (26, Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) who he is targeting, he immediately brings up Arata Fujiwara  (Miki House) and Kentaro Nakamoto  (Team Sagawa Express).  It's not just that he respects them as his former senior teammates at Takushoku University, but something more.  Having missed the London team himself, Ito views the two Olympians as his rivals.  "I don't just want to be like them, I want to beat them," he says.  With that state of mind Ito will make a return to the marathon on the start line of Sunday's Hofu Yomiuri Marathon . As a general division entrant in Hofu in 2010 Ito took 2nd in 2:15:42, the top Japanese man behind winner Serod Batochir  (Mongolia).  The following July he ran his best of 2:13:16 abroad at Australia's Gold Coast Marathon, taking 4th.  But despite making straightforward pro...

by Brett Larner Former teammates at Shizuoka-based Suzuki Hamamatsu AC , Kenyans Lucy Wangui Kabuu  and Martin Irungu Mathathi  staged dominating performances to win the women's and men's races at the rolling downhill Great North Run half marathon on Sept. 18.  Wangui, a graduate of Aomori Yamada H.S. before running for Suzuki and winning 10000 m gold and 5000 m bronze at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, showed no sign of her near-absence from competition since the Beijing Olympics as she made an early surge at world record pace to easily crush the field, winning in 1:07:06 over two minutes up on runner-up Jessica Augusto  (Portugal).  2011 Yokohama International Women's Marathon 3rd-placer Marisa Barros  (Portugal) was 3rd again only four weeks after finishing 9th in the Daegu World Championships marathon.  Formerly Japan-based Mara Yamauchi  (Great Britain), in training for November's third edition of Yokohama, was a DNF after dropping from the le...